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Copyright of Agathon: International Journal of Architecture, Art & Design is the property of DEMETRA CE.RI.MED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objectives The issues of environmental protection, including stopping the degrading climate change, are currently a subject of particular interest of the scientific community, policymakers, practitioners, but also all people around the world. Banking institutions, as a giver of capital, play a special role in financing climate protection activities. On the other hand, they are particularly exposed to climate risk. The main purpose of the paper is climate risk exegesis and to analyze the degree of climate risk inclusion in the bank risk management process in the case of the Polish banking sector. The conducted empirical research verified the research hypothesis stating that the Polish banking sector is becoming more and more oriented towards the climate risk among the bank risk management systems. Material and methods The following research methods were used in the paper: survey questionnaire method, case study analysis, observation method and synthesis method. The research procedure included two stages of questionnaire research, followed by the analysis and evaluation of the obtained results. Results It has been shown that the Polish banking sector defines its climate goals and is increasingly sensitive to the climate risk management, including them in its risk management systems. It also assesses exposure to climate risk in terms of physical and transitional risk. Conclusions The research and results presented in this study are important in building political awareness as well as public, social and economic activities in the field of counteracting climate threats. However, banks’ awareness is very important for financing projects that reduce degrading impact on climate.

Who can fight against climate change and global warming? Who ought to fight? What is the role of the human rights-based climate change litigation? The paper tries to answer these questions, having as a starting point the definition of a "minimum content" of the fight against climate change and global warming. Acting against climate change and global warming firstly means carrying out a global collective action involving actors (individuals, States, enterprises, generations) with different levels of awareness and responsibility. Given the above, the paper focuses on the "climate legal obligation" whose source is rooted in the International (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement) and EU climate law, with the aim to point out the legal duties of every single State. Consequently, the paper underlines how the climate obligation specifically requires the adoption of mitigation measures in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, moving from the Dutch Urgenda case, the paper points out the role of the human rights-based climate change litigation in the global fight against climate crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possible effects of climate change in urbanized areas - evidenced by several studies - led the City of Bologna to adopt a Climate Change Adaptation Plan to assess potential risks and vulnerabilities as a basis for adaptation actions prioritizing interventions through a coordinated local strategy. This paper summarizes some measures implemented at local level in collaboration with the Department of Architecture of the University of Bologna and, in particular, the pilot actions for urban greening developed within the European project H2020 - ROCK and the proposals for intervention included made during the "Design for Adaptation" project. Resilient Urban Communities" PhD Climate KIC summer school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2022 7(2), 527-532 | European Forum Highlight of 27 July 2022 | (Abstract) The Highlight discusses the EU policy on soil protection and preservation. It is argued that the EU has thus far failed to establish a comprehensive and effective legal framework on this issue. Rather, the EU acquis is extremely fragmented, with soils being addressed as ancillary elements to other environmental priorities. The Highlight points out that the current state of affairs is largely due to the Council's inability to conduct successful negotiations on the Commission's 2006 proposal for a Soil Framework Directive. This legislative initiative was abandoned in 2014 following claims of its violation of the subsidiarity principle. However, in the framework of its new Soil Strategy for 2030, the Commission has included an upcoming proposal for a comprehensive Soil Health Directive. The Highlight argues that, while the Commission is taking seriously the pre-proposal impact assessment, subsidiarity check and consultations, the current state of the environment requires the governments sitting in the Council to leave aside their formalistic criticisms and to adopt a proactive approach to the negotiations, with a view to bridging the existing gap in EU environmental law.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2022 7(1), 253-264 | European Forum Insight of 18 May 2022 | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. Un insuccès imputable à l'obstacle de la recevabilité des requêtes climatiques auprès de la Cour de justice. - III. Explorer les voies de droit à même de porter la défense du climat devant la Cour de justice. - IV. Mobiliser en Europe des droits fondamentaux substantiels adaptés au contentieux climatique. | (Abstract) So far, climate change litigation in the European Union has been a disappointment, since the European Court of Justice denied the admissibility of two promising cases in 2021: Sabo ECLI:EU:C:2021:24 and Carvalho ECLI:EU:T:2019:252. Nonetheless, the European human rights litigation can still play a significant role in alleviating the ongoing climate crisis in the future. There is still a path to find the access to the Luxembourg Court for future claims related to climate change. Renewed standards of European Human Rights could also be one of the keys to create a proper case law to fight global warming.

The current and increasingly intensive technocratic drift recognises the indiscriminate power of techniques in solving several problems, including the struggle against climate change and its impact on cities. One of the future challenges concerns the effective and conscious application of KETs for the creation of smart environments in historical heritage, which plays a strategic role for its conservative values, but also in the broader strategy for limiting greenhouse gas emissions. The proposed paper reports some preliminary results of a research aimed at investigating and acknowledging these technologies as an enabling medium to undertake more informed deterministic choices in the field of CH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responses to the current energy crisis and to action against climate change have produced a wide variety of experimentations. Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) and Energy Communities (EC) are spreading as aggregators of enabling technologies, but the knowledge and skills required to plan, implement and monitor them still need to be developed. Technology alone is not enough to facilitate knowledge sharing and the experimentation and co-creation of solutions. The paper focuses on methods and tools that allow to support the creation of "energy citizens" through considerations developed in project H2020 GRETA (Green Energy Transition Actions) and in COST Action 'PED-EU-NET'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes one of the crucial junctures in the fight against climate change, namely its relationship with the media and disinformation. A dense network of actors is involved in the creation and dissemination of disinformation that has long been supported by the economic interests of the oil and coal industries and is now fully embedded in the post-truth climate. The absence of direct experience and perception of the effects of climate change has emphasized the public's cognitive dependence on the media, which, however, have lagged far behind and manifested inadequacy with respect to the emergence of the global warming issue. In dialogue with a vast scientific literature and Pew Research Center data, the paper analyzes the widespread post-factual and social attitudes ranging from skepticism to outright militant denialism. In this context, the article proposes and signals the need for a healthy epistemic environment, understood as an indispensable index of the quality of democracy and of critical subjectivity as a preconditions for any positive action against countering climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ri-vista: Ricerche per la progettazione del paesaggio is the property of Firenze University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Agathon: International Journal of Architecture, Art & Design is the property of DEMETRA CE.RI.MED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Annuario di Antropologia is the property of Ledizioni-LediPublishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The moral evaluation of actions that disregard climate change, in individual as well as public ethics, is complex. A clear moral judgment itself is difficult to reach in both contexts, as we are far from paradigm moral cases where specific people provoke harm to easily identifiable others. However, for people to seriously engage in climate change mitigation, it has to be clear why it is wrong not to do so. There is therefore a need to frame moral responsibility for anti-environmental behavior using language and concepts that are understandable to a broad public. This paper will argue that the concept of selfishness, properly construed, is the most appropriate tool for describing and morally evaluating human behavior that disregards climate change. A specific consequentialist definition of selfishness will be provided to this purpose. Some objections to framing the environmental decision in this way will be raised in public as well as individual ethics. In the public sphere, moral deliberations are complicated by the conflict between the rights of the present generation and those of future ones. In individual ethics, the inconsequentiality of individual emissions calls into question the very existence of a moral imperative to act pro-environmentally. The paper will thus investigate the grounds on which we can hold accountable policy makers who refuse to take action on climate change, focusing on the concept of future discounting. With regard to the individual dimension, a proposal will be advanced on the basis of a non-superfluous causal contribution to collective-impact cases. In both contexts, the paper will eventually argue that anti-environmental actions can be defined as selfish according to the definition provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the climate-related discourses of two (sets of) actors with a significant following on the two poles of the current US climate debate: the climate advocacy of one of the most vociferous US environmentalists in office, House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the delegitimizing climate counternarratives fashioned by mainstream conservative media outlet Fox News. Specifically, it centres on the processes that govern the argumentative framing of the 2019 policy proposal known as the (US) Green New Deal Resolution (GND) within Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s tweets and news segments on the GND posted on the official Fox News YouTube site. Guided by the analytical framework delineated in Fairclough and Mădroane (2020), this paper seeks to lay bare the ways in which these two deliberating agents made selected premises salient and overriding, used linguistic devices to (re)define and (re)categorize phenomena, and had recourse to macro speech acts such as explanations and narratives to support their intended aims. In exposing the mechanisms that govern the framing of the critical issue of climate change and the debate of an environmental policy, it hopes to contribute to understanding how framing strategies are employed within policy debates that unfold in less formal contexts and to shed light on the communication of climate-related issues in ways that more effectively resonate with the public and counteract climate scepticism and denial.

Copyright of Agathon: International Journal of Architecture, Art & Design is the property of DEMETRA CE.RI.MED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objectives Adaptations to digitalization and climate change of all aspects of society are important issues of innovation management at the local and regional levels. The paper demonstrates: 1) the components of smart specialization in order to achieve municipalities and regions strategy goals; 2) the use of the mechanism of smart specialization to realize the entrepreneurial potential of the regional economy; 3) the introduction of smart specialization for the innovative development of the Ukrainian municipalities based on the European experience; 4) the indicators of building resilience of municipalities and regions innovative management to smart specialization. Material and methods Combination of dialectical approach to the knowledge of the components of smart specialisation and the methods of induction, deduction for the realisation of the entrepreneurial potential of the regional economy based on cross-industry clustering became the basis for the development of recommendations for municipalities Results Extending the sustainability of innovative municipal and regional governance to smart specialisation is to take into account the importance of using the main postulates of the smart specialisation mechanism to realise the innovation potential of the regional economy. Conclusions The priority directions of the agro-energy cluster model should be the establishment of a cluster model of "Government-Business-Science-Education" interaction. In order to achieve this goal, scientists from the Western Ukrainian National University justified and developed the Programme for Supporting Innovation in Areas of Smart Specialisation in the Ternopil Region for 2020-2023, which aims to implement innovative approaches to capacity building of the regional economy within the framework of smart, sustainable and comprehensive development.

Exploring the role of knowledge circulation in everyday life could provide interesting insights on how different forms of knowledge shapes the lifeworld and subjective realities of people. In the context of everyday livelihood struggles of a coastal fishing community, this paper examines the nature of knowledge circulation at the local level and its micropolitics in wider social arenas. Exploring the nature of local knowledge systems prevalent among small-scale fishworkers, this paper further examines the politics of knowledge, when it circulates from the local social worlds to their solidarity networks. This paper is based on a qualitative study conducted in a coastal fishing village at Munambam situated along the Cochin Estuary in Kerala, India. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase of the study, data was collected through in-depth interviews by using a semi-structured interview schedule. In the second phase, a content analysis of media reports was carried out with an aim to analyse the discourses prevalent among diverse solidarity networks of fishworkers. The findings of this paper show that local knowledge is situated and intersectional. Further, the everyday lives of fishworkers are shaped by different knowledge claims that also signify their everyday struggles to access basic livelihood resources. It is amidst these diverse knowledge claims that one needs to critically examine the narratives of modernisation, climate change and the role of solidarity networks among fishworkers.

Environmental catastrophes, perpetuated by the unsustainable and unrestricted consumption of resources, are becoming increasingly apparent. Although elite practices often account for a disproportionate amount of resource usage, wealthy ways of life remain unchallenged while the non-elite continuously adapt to ecological crises. The cases of celebrity lawn-watering and golf course maintenance in drought-prone California represent the larger issue of elite practices that effectively oppose healthy change. These elite landscapes have become thoroughly ingrained in American culture, and dismantling their constructed necessity requires scepticism of information produced by those within dominant social orders. This paper will highlight the negative impacts of elite ecological practices while asserting that new ways of living, such as wild gardening and the repurposing of golf course land, should be embraced and empowered. Unnatural landscape aesthetics must be devalued to adapt to environmental changes, and to accomplish this feat, a cultural shift is crucial.

Multidisciplinary skills and knowledges were common in historical constructions. The necessity to rethink the way we design and realize our built environment in response to the climate change is requiring the re-convergence of knowledge. The development of multidisciplinary practices and digital communication platforms are enabling the new transition. The design and fabrication of shell is one the field, where the cross-over of knowledge is most evident. Digital technologies are facilitating experimentations of complex shell geometries, a wise use of materials, and the development of new construction processes. This paper explores the transformation of shell designs, and the importance of multiple actors, through the analysis of a shell prototype developed for an international context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper shows the results of the first phase of the research project "METROPOLIS - Methodologies and Technologies for integrated and sustainable adaptation and security of urban systems" developed by STRESS Scarl - High Technology District for Sustainable Building of the Campania Region. The project is aimed at the development of innovative strategies for a resilient urban system and design guidelines for appropriate choices of urban regeneration based on the assessment and mitigation of natural and man-made hazards. The paper describes the results concerning the definition of innovative methodologies for the knowledge and mapping of urban vulnerability to climate risks in the East Naples area. The cross-disciplinary and multi-scale approach integrates knowledge and technology from university and industrial partners to develop a decision support tool in the field of urban regeneration. The study of the impacts of extreme weather events, based on the simulation of climate change scenarios in the area of East Naples, includes the data management in a GIS environment from satellite remote sensing, direct surveys and simulation software, focusing on the environmental and technological performance of urban spaces and elements. The research results report risk scenarios for pluvial flood and heat waves hazards according to both climatic variables, both aggravating phenomena arising from the characteristics of urban settlements. The complex reading of the buildings-open spaces system and its response to climate change conditions has allowed to define the vulnerability of elements at risk, as well as adaptation and mitigation solutions to be implemented within urban regeneration interventions, identifying critical issues in relation to comfort and environmental risk conditions, consumption and efficient use of resources, compliance of the technological choices to specific requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, green design considers climate as a fixed property of a specific place. Nevertheless, recent changes demonstrate that this vision has to be reversed, considering climate a time-dependent parameter. This paper hybridises climatology and bioclimatic design underlining, thanks to the usage of a very recent high resolution climate reanalysis database (ERA5-Land), the impact that climate changes have on short-term periods, adopting well known building climate-related indicators. European maps are drawn considering degree-days variations (from 1981-95 to 2004-18), while typical mean 24-hour monthly days and bioclimatic charts are adopted for a limited number of locations. Results support the need to adopt climate data time variations during design phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2017 2(2), 519-542 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. The legal phenomenon of IEMEIs. - II.1. IEMEIs regulating conduct abroad on the basis of environmental regulatory requirements. - II.2. IEMEIs regulating trade: market access conditions and obligations on Third Country actors. - II.3. Compliance with IEMEIs: "contingent unilateralism", equivalence and flexibility. - III. Access to justice. - III.1. Avenues for access to justice for different kinds of third country actors. - III.2. Standing. - III.3. The Aarhus Convention and access to justice. - IV. Conclusion. | (Abstract) The EU conducts its external relations through different types of tools, including through unilateral domestic measures with extraterritorial implications that extend its regulatory power to processes occurring partly abroad. These are increasingly prevalent in the area of environmental protection, including climate change. Examples include the sustainability criteria for biofuels, the inclusion of aviation emissions in the EU emissions trading system, ship recycling, exports of electrical and electronic waste and imports of timber. Because these measures are unilateral in nature, developed within the EU legal order, but have important legal and policy effects beyond EU borders, they raise complex legitimacy questions and may give rise to an external accountability gap. The role of EU administrative law, which controls the exercise of EU public power, is important in "disciplining" the exercise of EU power beyond EU borders and filling this gap. The Article explores some of the novel regulatory techniques employed in these kinds of internal measures to conduct external action and how administrative law responds to their complexities. It focuses on access to justice in the EU legal order in exploring the extent of an external accountability gap. The constraints of accessing the EU judicial system may accentuate the external accountability gap if the EU cannot be held into account on the basis of its own rule of law by third country actors affected by its action.

This paper compares the traditional vs carbon-oriented forest management of two coniferous stands in the Alpine environment, quantifying the carbon sink, the carbon credit generated and the economic results. The results show the economic feasibility of the transition from current forest management strategies to a carbon-oriented method in the considered context. Carbon-oriented management provides relevant environmental benefits, combatting climate change, even though some elements of uncertainty still persist, particularly in relation to achieving a profitable management, specifically due to the volatile voluntary carbon credit market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution presents the results of a study that interprets in-between spaces as a modular system which structures space, relationships, and urban dynamics from a climate perspective. The aim is to demonstrate the positive contribution that technological-environmental design can offer in the context of redevelopment and new construction of the urban fabric, concerning the ecological performance of the entire urban system, particularly from the perspective of decarbonisation and climate mitigation. Within this research, a methodology for classifying and analysing in-between spaces was developed, as well as a method for evaluating the reduction of climate-altering emissions. The paper compares six case studies that represent the three identified categories of in-between spaces, evaluating them through the criteria of Naturalness, Proximity and Circularity and in relation to the six strategic axes of Green Cities. Article info Received: 10/09/2023; Revised: 10/10/2023; Accepted: 19/10/2023

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2016 1(3), 1153-1170 | European Forum Insight of 22 December 2016 | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction - II. The Judgment in Context - II.1. Theory and Practice of Market-Based Environmental Regulation - II.2 Emissions Trading in the EU - III. The DK Recycling Case - III.1 Background - III.2. DK Recycling before the General Court - III.3. DK Recycling before the Court of Justice - IV. A Parallel Between DK Recycling and the Regulatory Shift to Auctioning: The Normative Landscape of Allowance Allocation - V. DK Recycling, Allowance Allocation and Theoretical Constructions of the EU ETS. | (Abstract) In its judgment of 22 June 2016, DK Recycling und Roheisen GmbH v. Commission, the Court of Justice ruled on an appeal brought by a German undertaking operating installations subject to the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), i.e. a "carbon market" where operators trade greenhouse gas emission allowances. At issue in the case were the rules on free allocation of emission allowances. After putting the case in context by providing an overview of the normative framework of the mechanism, the present analysis examines how the case contributes to the understanding of the theoretical implications of the EU ETS.

The paper intends to bring to the reader’s attention the importance of understanding the role education plays in creating a good geopolitical position for a state which has a good geographical position, and which is well endowed in natural resources. The case of Romania is the main focus of the paper. There is presented a peculiar strange situation of a country (Romania) which is very well located from geographical point of view but which is incapable to exploit its natural endowments and special location. One reason for this situation is the fact that most people living in present Romania belong to a category named in this paper ‘individuals’. Individuals are not aware of their country’s geography and history, let alone its possible future development possibilities. They do not know the role their country could play, and living in an atomized society, they choose emigration as the easiest way to escape harsh social and economic environment. Contrary to this attitude is that of a citizen, a man conscious about his country’s potential, and which is dedicated to work hardly together with his fellows in order to promote national interests in a peaceful manner. Even there was found remnants of an ancient city close to present day Romanian territory – proves of well endowed environment – moral and psychological factors have contributed after 1990 in an crucial manner to push Romania from its civilization path back to the archaic spirit, from active urban spirit to rural mentality. In such a situation it is not uncommon for a nation to lose its means for projecting power, which could promote the value and the importance of a geographical position – transportation; rural mentality has nothing to do with modern transportation as they are technical tools with geopolitical essence for controlling space. It is a well known fact that transportation and geopolitics are closely interrelated. Furthermore, social dissolution in post communist Romania is identified in population reduction’s number, in missing trust in her successful evolution, falling agriculture and deforestation. All these negative aspects have pushed back Romania from geopolitical point of view. As solution for regaining its geopolitical role, Romanian must have an educated population, which would be conscious about the important connection between geography and education, and between Romania’s geographical position and the needed tools for promoting it from geopolitical point of view. Cough between East and West, Romania belongs to both areas; much more, in the context of climate change, Romania’s land, fresh water, and cheap water transport possibilities on Danube and Black Sea (and well beyond it) must be used at their real capacities. Only in that moment Romania’s special geographical position will made Romania an active geopolitical actor, helping Romanians to determine its fate in a sustainable manner.

Exploring new aesthetic dimensions in the sustainable transformation of the environment is one of the prerogatives of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) campaign. Design disciplines offer the ideal framework to investigate how performative requirements admitted in the construction industry provide inputs to the manifestation of contemporary urban aesthetics. Firstly, the paper introduces the discourse on architectural aesthetics recalling prominent positions sedimented since the 20th century, providing the theoretical framework to discuss how canons and codes of beauty are shifting according to current sustainable agendas. Secondly, it showcases peculiar design attitudes connecting buildings’ aesthetics and ecologies, referring to four case studies. The methodology discusses the extent of design choices driven by different declinations of sustainability, which include the production of clean energy, circular economy, and carbon capture. The results portray a horizon of new aesthetics emerging from the advocated ecological transition that contributes to renegotiating the idea of beauty as intentional senses of figuration and sensory experiences.

This paper moves from the idea that cities represent a central “battlefield” for today’s environmental challenges. Climate change, in particular, poses significative threats for urban landscapes and communities living in urban space. On the one hand, today’s challenges have significant continuities with classical urban issues: cities have always been space of conflicts, contradictions, inequalities. Environmental issues represent one of the many stressors of urban dynamics; conflicts on the locations of polluting sites, for example, have developed over the last fifty years, intertwined with segregation and discrimination processes. On the other hand, the central role of the environment in current policies, framed as “sustainability policies”, need a specific, renewed and stronger focus on urban inequalities, that can significantly benefit from new analytical tools, such as Big data. The first paragraph give a short perspective on environmental justice history and main topics, focusing in particular on its lasting interest for spatial inequalities and discrimination processes. The second paragraph underlines how, within the context of climate change, such perspective proves to be still useful, permitting to deepen our understandings of vulnerabilities and recovery processes in the aftermath of disasters, or resilience planning’s failures. The third and last paragraph illustrates how new analytical tools, such as Big Data or ecometrics, can be used to inform local policies and strengthen cooperation between activists, citizen, administrators and academics in tackling inequalities within the urban fabric.

The paper reflects on the state of the art in the field of smart cities and climate change focusing on how cities can play a role in meeting the 2030 climate neutrality goal. It investigates the main streams of literature on cities’ visions (smart city, sharing city, self-sufficient city, 15-minuts city, circular city) and the climate-neutrality approach proposed by the European Commission through the EU mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities. The mission has identified 100 European cities that will be engaged in a transition to climate neutrality by the end of 2030 as cities’ model to push other cities to work for meeting goals of decarbonization. The 9 Italian cities selected by the mission, as well as a city inspired by the mission itself, are presented with their programs and initiatives in order to highlight how they are replying to the main urban challenges in terms of services provisions. The emerging hypothesis is that, to provide services in a fair and just way reducing environmental impact, city should be understand as a commons. A co-city model based on a penta helix approach as those proposed by Foster and Iaione, is thus a strategic way to deal with the urban challenges also in a climate logic and would help cities to meet the EU goals by 2030.

When it comes to climate change mitigation, both the European Union (EU) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are regarded as the main actors driving international efforts, but for different reasons. While the EU’s status as a climate change champion is based on its ability to regulate and set high international norms and standards, the PRC is one of the world’s great powers that have the economic and technological resources and the capacity needed to significantly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Benefiting from its institutional and regulatory framework, the EU seeks through its foreign policy and other cooperation mechanisms to persuade other international actors, such as the PRC, to adapt their climate change policies to European demands in this area. In this paper, I analyze the normative power of the EU over the PRC in fighting climate change, and I will argue why the Brussels efforts to mitigate the speed of the global climate change after the signing of the Paris Agreement (PA) are only partially supplemented by those of the PRC. The reason why EU’s influence on Beijing’s climate change policy is limited has to do with the PRC’s own ambition on this issue, which is driven by its great power aspirations.

It’s needless to say that nuclear is a hot subject. It arouses public imagination, suspicion, and fear. It has always animated scientists’ minds and souls and after they discovered how to manipulate the atom, the public conscience has become aware of its dangers and its merits. Present paper aims to present why it is important to regard with optimism and trust the science of atoms, not without loosing our critical view concerning the risks inherently connected to it. Nuclear arms are a reality, but climate change is another. Mankind is facing both. It cannot ignore one of them without assuming greater risks in the future. In this context, nuclear can be regarded with hope and audacity. Its expansion, both in countries where it already is employed, and into newcomers (where it could be implemented), can bring benefits such as: reducing energy dependence on foreign interests placed under the umbrella of oil and gas producers, or transporters; rising energy security in a world where access to cheap and reliable energy would become more problematic; greater success in fighting climate changes and global warming through energy generated in a more environmentally friendly manner. Furthermore, over the energy aspect of peaceful nuclear energy, there is another economic and technological benefit: nuclear researches could be involved simultaneously in electricity generation, heat production, agricultural and industrial rising’s potential, water desalinization and providing in arid areas, and application in medical researches and treatment. But nuclear has its weak points: it is connected to military researches and programs, while offering the needed technical ground for UN Security Council permanent members to have and maintain prestige in international politics; it looms over mankind, as a menace which hunts our conscience after Hiroshima and Nagasaki… Its minuses have to do with international context, too: if we connect the highest level in technology with strongest religious sentiment than we can face a terrifying drama. A nuclear nuke in the hands of a terrorist organization is the worst nightmare mankind could face. Countries with nuclear arms (Russian Federation and Pakistan) were courted by dangerous organizations, which searched to gain access to fissile material. But there is a hope, and the paper presents it in an indirect manner: if public conscience activates in direction of nuclear disarmament, nuclear could become the hope for a better future. Nuclear disarmament would mean a safer world, while peaceful nuclear expansion will mean cleaner energy and greater access to electricity in more areas, all of them creating a better world and a civilization proud of its name.

Effectively addressing the issue of climate resilience in urban areas requires the development of innovative design methods that can handle the complexity of the information needed to guide sustainable urban regeneration and retrofitting strategies, as well as to manage the technological and environmental solutions in a multi-scale perspective. The paper presents the methodology developed by the ARC3-2 Urban Planning and Design working group of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) and the results of the experimental activities conducted within Studios and Workshops promoted in New York, Paris and Naples by the New York Institute of Technology, the Polytechnic of Milan and the University of Naples Federico II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the relationship between urban planning and global warming mitigation strategies by constructing an argument that, starting from the legacy of the Modern Movement, includes the outcomes of more recent research. The thesis founded on the increase of vegetation in urban areas as an indispensable tool for temperature mitigation emerges as the protagonist from this scientific starting point. In the course of this in-depth study, this proposal finds an experimental verification through some concrete design experiences that combine the environmental objective while taking care of the quality of living spaces. The projects demonstrate how the twofold objective (containment of global warming and quality of living spaces) remains constant regardless of the scales of intervention, testifying to an overall cultural transformation that takes shape from interior architecture to the territory. Article info Received: 31/01/2023; Revised: 14/03/2023; Accepted: 10/05/2023

Most Middle Eastern and North African regions are characterized by an arid and semi-arid climate. As such, the drinking water supply and management have become a challenging task for local and regional authorities. The Mio-Plio Quaternary aquifer of the Barika area is the only drinking and irrigation water reservoir in the region. The objective of this paper is to identify the origin and evolution process of the groundwater mineralization of this aquifer using major elements as indicators. To achieve this objective water samples were collected, from several boreholes drilled in the aquifer, in June 2018 and March 2019, and subsequently analyzed. The results obtained in terms of Gibbs plot, Piper, chemical correlation, and statistical analysis of chemical data identified the origins of groundwater mineralization. The dissolution of evaporated minerals, precipitation of carbonates, evapotranspiration, and ion exchange reactions have been identified as the primary processes of mineralization. The results of the physicochemical analysis showed that these waters consisted mainly of chloride, calcium sulfate, and magnesium facies types with a slight change of facies in some boreholes during the two sampling periods. This is due to the interactions with the-aquifer geology and to the water scarcity caused by climate change.

This work aims to present the state of the art regarding the distribution of stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in the water flowing within the soil-vegetation-atmosphere continuum. A special attention will be devoted to the fruit crops, although less research has been done in this field relative to other ecosystems. The most up-to-date researches on climate change highl ight the risk of extended drought periods throughout the European continent, and especially in the Mediterranean region. For this reason, the European community has already activated a series of actions to improve the resilience of the European society to future water scarcity. Although much is known already about the water fluxes on Earth, much more has to be unveiled, especially regarding water permanence in the soil and its flux from the soil to the atmosphere through plants. This is because many effects of the complex interactions between water and its environment still need to be fully comprehended. Many techniques are available to researchers to study water fluxes in the environment. The analysis of stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in water is one of them and is getting particularly popular because of the development of new, powerful techniques that allow continuous measurements directly in the field. We shortly introduce the topic reporting the background information regarding the stable isotopes, including the most important chemical- physical processes affecting the isotopic composition of water and the most common techniques to measure them. We explain how and why use stable isotopes in ecophysiology, agriculture and agroecological research. Stable isotopes are naturally occurring alternative forms of a specific element. Hydrogen has two stable isotopes, 1H and 2H, while oxygen has three, 16O, 17O and 18O, though only the former and the latter are commonly used for research. Because of their ubiquity and because they are natural constituents of water, they represent the perfect trace to follow its flow within ecosystems, even when it is not possible to directly measure the flux rate. We then dissect the agroecosystem presenting the main processes affecting the isotopic composition of water entering in, flowing through and exiting from the ecosystem. In particular, we discuss the dynamics of water in soil, by showing how the forces that push or pull water out of the soil and those that keep it in the system affect its isotopic composition. This is, probably, the environmental compartment that is known the least, not only because it is difficult to study, but also because of the high number of chemical, physical and biological factors that may have an effect on soil water isotopic composition. From the soil, the water is taken up by roots and transferred in huge amounts in the atmosphere. This flux does not only cause a huge withdrawal of water from the soil, pushing the farmers to artificially import it into the system by irrigation, but also creates air turbulences, which can deeply affect the local climatic conditions. For space reasons, we only report the most important fluxes of water. Many more aspects should have been explained, but this would have produced a book instead of a review paper. Nonetheless, with this work, we hope to stimulate the interest of the reader to know more about the distribution of stable isotopes in agroecosystems and the usefulness of using them as a tool to study water fluxes in these systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper shows the results of the first phase of the research project “METROPOLIS - Methodologies and Technologies for integrated and sustainable adaptation and security of urban systems” developed by STRESS Scarl - High Technology District for Sustainable Building of the Campania Region. The project is aimed at the development of innovative strategies for a resilient urban system and design guidelines for appropriate choices of urban regeneration based on the assessment and mitigation of natural and man-made hazards. The paper describes the results concerning the definition of innovative methodologies for the knowledge and mapping of urban vulnerability to climate risks in the East Naples area. The cross-disciplinary and multi-scale approach integrates knowledge and technology from university and industrial partners to develop a decision support tool in the field of urban regeneration. The study of the impacts of extreme weather events, based on the simulation of climate change scenarios in the area of East Naples, includes the data management in a GIS environment from satellite remote sensing, direct surveys and simulation software, focusing on the environmental and technological performance of urban spaces and elements. The research results report risk scenarios for pluvial flood and heat waves hazards according to both climatic variables, both aggravating phenomena arising from the characteristics of urban settlements. The complex reading of the buildings-open spaces system and its response to climate change conditions has allowed to define the vulnerability of elements at risk, as well as adaptation and mitigation solutions to be implemented within urban regeneration interventions, identifying critical issues in relation to comfort and environmental risk conditions, consumption and efficient use of resources, compliance of the technological choices to specific requirements.

The strategies for adaptation and resilience to climate change challenge the ongoing distinctions between the natural and the cultural. These coupled and inseparable concepts become fully interdependent in specific conditions of environmental change, when traditional representations of space and environment become inadequate to describe swiftly occurring transformations. Mapping techniques have made progresses at the local level but they need to include knowledge and approaches inherited from the past to develop new kind of adaptive information patterns. The paper describes examples of spatial change representations developed by Aboriginal communities who live in strict coupling with their natural environment. It focuses on the area of the Northern Territory of Australia which faces a condition of long-lasting coexistence with altered tides regimes and massive land degradation due to large wildfires. The orientation system adopted by Aboriginal communities over the land and by the sea has changed to include GIS technologies, developing a hybrid techno/visual language which allow both the space and the people to be represented by visual means, narrations and technical data.

This paper defines an original methodological and applicative approach in support of the experimental/planning phase in the area of the regeneration of urban districts, in order to offer responses to the challenges of adapting to and mitigating climate change. Applied in two case studies in Rome, the methodology incorporates and verifies strategies and passive bioclimatic solutions through activities of ex-ante/ex-post modelling/simulation, constructing multicriteria and multiscalar planning models based on fluid dynamics, and measuring their effectiveness through the quantification of the reduction of CO2 emissions. The expected results are improved environmental comfort in outdoor, in-between, and indoor spaces, lower energy demand and CO2 emissions mitigation, through a set of actions and solutions that are comparable, replicable, and measurable in terms of energy-climate performance and environmental well-being.

This paper investigates the use of science in British newspapers’ narratives of climate change between 1988 and 2016. It is based on the analysis of eight newspapers and their Sunday and online versions (Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Daily Express, The Sun, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent). We used the keywords “climate / climatic change”, “warm / warming” and “greenhouse / greenhouse effect” to retrieve the articles from the Nexis / Lexis database. To identify the articles with a specific focus on climate change, we included only those containing the keywords in the headline (9789 items). Framing theory helps interpret the process of construction of the “threat” through science by showing a tendency towards scientific consensus for the centre / left-leaning newspapers, and an instrumental use of consensus for the centre-right. These findings are useful for both scientists and policymakers interested in understanding how climate narratives can promote delay in action on climate change.

The 2015 Paris Agreement, complementing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, showcases an impressive consensus on climatological rhetoric. Thereby, it will contribute certainly neither to achieving its overall objectives on temperature nor to redressing any of the resulting “loss [or] damage” yet possibly tocontinuing the worldwide dialogue on the environment or on ecological entitlements. This paper will dissect and categorize these. It will conclude that the framers essentially kept the conversation going, nationally and internationally, encouraging the establishment, the adjudicatory branch, and the public to resume the conceptual or practical advancement on the topic.

The paper shows the evolution of the breeding distribution of the Ashy-headed Wagtail Motacilla flava cinereocapilla in the period 1820-2014. Until 1880, the subspecies nested along the coast north and east of the Adriatic Sea, with some settlements (probably of poor numerical consistency) located in suitable areas of Tuscany, Sicily and Provence; after 1880 it was observed to appear regularly in the Po Valley during migration, and afterwards to occupy the area widely as a breeder. During the nineteenth century the Po Valley underwent major transformation processes with the consequent disruption of ancient agricultural rotations, and an increase of 1°C in the average temperature was also recorded in the area. Out of all the changes that occurred, besides the abundant availability of water, the biotic factor that probably favored the expansion of the subspecies in the Po valley the most is the increase in livestock and the consequent increase in the meadowlands: the first mowing of grass coincides temporally with the hatching of yellow wagtails (often nesting in neighboring fields of wheat), offering them the opportunity to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of foraging on the open ground, with likely benefits for the reproductive success. In the first half of the twentieth century the Ashy-headed Wagtail completed the occupation of the Po Valley, and in the late 1940 a new phase began, during which it settled in new areas in central and southern Italy and Sardinia, extending its distribution area in southern France; but, above all, appearing with increasing frequency and regularity during migrations north of the Alps. These northward shifts later materialized in the settlement of several reproductive groups in France, Switzerland, Germany and Austria, always along basins of rivers or near lakes. Water seems to be the catalyst for the presence of the subspecies. This further expansion phase has probably been favored by climate changes, and in particular by the rise in temperature in the Greater Alpine Region. Favoured by this situation, the subspecies has also colonized mountain areas: in France up to 350 m.a.s.l. in the department of Isère, in Switzerland up to 1700-1800 m.a.s.l. in the Upper Engadine, in Germany up to 880 m.a.s.l. at Ammer and Grunt lakes, in Austria up to 960 m.a.s.l. in Hochfilzen and in Bosnia-Herzegovina up to 720 m.a.s.l. in the plain of Livanjsko. In the Italian Alps it reached the altitude of about 900 m.a.s.l. in Venosta Valley and up to 1000 m.a.s.l. in central Apennines. Since the last decades of the twentieth century nestings have been recorded in Spain. Instead, the breeding of the subspecies in Maghreb is still uncertain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban microclimate studies could help manage heatwave crises and improve climate friendly urban planning. This paper presents adjustments to tools and approaches, in particular the Urban Climate Maps framework, typically produced in industrialized countries for contexts relevant to developing countries, where accurate urban data are often not available. In this study, relevant urban, architectural and land use data were collected and constructed to enable numerical simulations of a heat wave episode in the Greater Metropolitan area of Tunis. The simulation results indicate that the diurnal heat stress reached very high values corresponding to an extreme heat stress level, according to the Urban Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) scale, by 9 a.m. local time. The highest sea-breeze speeds were over the sea (∼8 m s−1). However, the effect of the sea breeze was low over densely urbanized areas (

The growing phenomena linked to climate change pushes cities to develop resilience plans to respond to environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Nature-based strategies can be a solution; among these, urban agriculture can increase the resilience of European urban fabrics. This activity has been the object of interest several times during crises or as a community activity with social, productive, and educational characteristics. Through a historical excursus and a subsequent analysis of contemporary case studies, the paper provides design tools for intervening in the built environment with strategies ranging from the urban to the architectural scale. The essay presents a replicable morpho-typological approach that can be applied and used by planners and policymakers to increase urban resilience.

Adequate knowledge of climate change and correct perception of the associated risks by the population are crucial factors for the effectiveness of climate policies. We analyze this topic by collecting information on the degree of current risk perception and its evolution over the last ten years among citizens living in five municipalities in an area of Abruzzo, a central Italian region. In addition, we gather information on the willingness of citizens to stipulate public insurance against damages caused by extreme events. The paper offers a descriptive analysis of the association between outcomes and individual/household characteristics. We find the degree of risk perception is relatively high, as around 2/3 of respondents believe the current risk of suffering damage from extreme events related to climate change is high or very high. More than 90% also believe that this risk has increased in the last ten years. The perception, however, is heterogeneous across population subgroups. Finally, citizens’ inclination toward public insurance covering damage from extreme events is also high. We also provide a quantitative analysis of the factors affecting the current risk perception by adopting a probit model. The related results essentially confirm evidence from the qualitative analysis and stress, in line with previous studies, the importance of previous damages as a predictor of risk perception.

This paper presents the development of the methodology used to create an Urban Climatic Analytical Map (UC-AnMap) of Salvador, Brazil, based on its Land Use Patterns Map (MPO). Located in the Northeast Region of Brazil, Salvador is currently the fourth most populous city in the country, with nearly three million people. First, the MPO was used as a layer; then, an updated version of the MPO was used as a fundamental layer to derive thematic maps based on the distinct urban morphologies found in the city. MPOs are suggested here as a starting methodological procedure, a facilitative tool for the construction of an Urban Climatic Map. MPOs allow the variety of urban land use patterns to be captured and are based on universally available information, such as Google Earth images and tools, regardless of the existence of sophisticated and costly databases, which are not usually accessible in cities in developing countries. MPOs involve identifying and delimiting visually homogeneous land use areas in polygons at an adequate scale of 1:10,000. Similar areas are grouped under the same patterns, regardless of their urban functions, creating a classification system that characterizes different existing patterns by their distinct urban attributes. Salvador’s social and economic inequalities have produced ongoing unequal urban patterns, and institutional and structural factors have contributed to the absence of up-to-date digital urban databases. Given the local context, the Salvador UC-AnMap could not have been made without developing an MPO.

The complex interaction between city and climate crisis is converting design-based disciplines from deterministic to flexible approaches. In this regard, Decision-Making Under Deep Uncertainty (DMDU) methods and operational strategies can be valuable support mechanisms to cope with the emerging climate fragilities of urban systems. In light of recent advances in the field of adaptive approaches, this paper discusses key concepts, current limitations and the potential to introduce the DMDU in the method and practices of regenerative design. Our critical discussion aims to restore the designer’s role within the DMDU and to reduce current and future climate fragilities in European cities.

This paper presents a digital interview with Justine Poon, legal researcher at the Australian National University (ANU), on selected aspects of Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos’ approach to environmental law and legal science.

The multidimensional nature of climate change makes it a complex matter, on both the theoretical and practical planes. The urgency and centrality of the issues and problems it poses are of key importance for our species and its survival. In this paper, we propose pairing the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities – the cornerstone of climate talks over the last thirty years – with the criterion of transgenerational responsibility. Such a criterion seeks to focus particular attention on the issues of diachronic justice and, in particular, intergenerational justice.

This paper focuses on the management of scarce water resources in two metropolises of the arid West of the United States facing intensifying droughts and increased water stress. Located in the Sonoran Desert and built on the model of the oasis city, Phoenix and Tucson are great examples of the socio-ecological challenges linked to extreme water scarcity. This study considers these two cities as laboratories for urban adaptation to climate change and explores competing modalities of adaptation to water scarcity. Since the system of large hydraulic infrastructures underpinning urban growth is increasingly called into question, we observe and analyze the power relations between stakeholders involved in water resource management. Using an urban political ecology framework, this contribution shows that adaptation strategies are implemented by dominant actors in order to maintain the growth trajectory of particularly attractive cities. Yet, it also highlights the role that citizen empowerment plays in the emergence of potential environmental alternatives. The results show that environmental alternatives play an important role in regulating resource control strategies and in calling for socio-environmental transformations in the urban metabolism.